from the politicians, fearmongers, warmongers, hustlers, thieves, swindlers and the rest of the monsters who pillaged this nation, stole its wealth, impoverished, threatened and disrespected its people and blighted their futures. It is time to open our eyes and regard the fraud we’ve put up with for so long with the deep revulsion it deserves. For over a decade, we the people have been victimized by rapacious banks and the legal system their dirty money bought; and by venal, craven scum in the highest offices of the nation who sent our friends and families to fight foreign wars for their perpetual enrichment and our everlasting disenfranchisement, degradation and poverty. We are now told that freedom comes second to security; that war is a perpetual state of the American consciousness and to meekly accept the unconstitutional, aggressive and demeaning shows of naked power exhibited more and more by all levels of government against us.

Those in power here thought that the shrill shills of their hired media would be enough to scatter the Americans like so much chaff; inflicting pointless artificial and irrational divides among a people that have far more in common than what divides them. They thought that after a few years of endless propaganda our brains would sop up the drivel that passed for their “analysis” and that their views would become our own. Americans were intended to become mere consumers instead of citizens—pockets to be picked; commodities instead of individuals engaged in meaningful lives of their own making. We were expected to go shopping in response to terror attacks and buy duct tape and plastic and cower from unseen weapons that foriegn enemies intended for us. We were expected to be mere sheep; afraid, confused, trusting and weak.

We aren’t weak. Americans have never been weak. And there are enough of us in this land to counteract the fearful ones and stand up against the powerbrokers and thieves who mistakenly think the world is their private plaything. After a decade of insult, the Americans are finding a voice again, albeit halting and unsure. This voice is enunciated by Occupy.
This movement, first described and urged on by Adbusters Magazine grew from the agitated, frustrated and until now, powerless to make their grievances known. Those grievances are many and it has taken time for a cohesive voice to make itself heard from their efforts. Some say they are fools without a message, but people better read in history recall that the French who took the Bastille in 1789 didn’t have much to say, either—at first. The message came later as it does in all revolutions. Occupy seems to be in sync with similar efforts around the world made up of people who are tired of losing what they believed was theirs by custom and right.

Rights seem to have gone by the wayside, especially since nine-eleven. The Patriot Act, TSA, Obama’s outrageous claims to have a license to kill Americans without trial or even charges filed as was demonstrated in the Awlaki case—these and many other outrages were inflicted on a people who historically fought to uphold civil liberty for themselves and advance human rights around the world. Now, Americans are made to walk regressive steps away from their own heritage. The better ones show themselves unwilling to go backward on command.
Americans still haven’t won the rights Franklin Roosevelt intended to enact as part of the victory of World War II. Known as the Four Freedoms—Freedom of Speech and Expression, Freedom of Worship, Freedom From Want and Freedom From Fear, these have been eroded from our national life with all deliberate speed by government on behalf of the economic powers government serves. Even worse, the other worthy goals sought by Roosevelt at war’s end have been tragically suppressed. Roosevelt’s Second Bill of Rights never saw the light of day and now more than ever they are needed not only at home but around the world to combat the corporative, fascist states like the ones we defeated in 1945.
Defenders of corporatism like to throw the term “class warfare” against anyone who dares to fight back. It’s an old lowbrow gimmick that corporate media never fails to repeat along with “anti-American”. The beauty of the Occupy movement is that far from being a meaningless outburst (as Fox News described it) it is asymmetric—a protest in all directions; 360 degrees of 3-D angst against the way US society has been rigged against us. They are protesting everything. This very asymmetry makes it difficult for the corporate reactionaries—the real class warriors—to know how to react beyond the usual excessive shows of force. So far, excessive force has only made the movement grow in response to violence, yet the cops and politicians—like all stupid bullies—seem slow to learn this. The protests have so far been non-violent and the videos and pictures of taxpayer-paid anger management cases acting out their perverse impulses against the unarmed and non-combatant will only make them more hated—just as it does in all repressive countries where government relies on force and terror to have its way.

ailure of communication where Occupy is concerned is now happening in 100 American cities. Considering that the economy is getting worse by the day and that the only ones protesting about it are Occupy, it seems reasonable that more and more people will support them over time. “Tax the rich” and “End the wars” may not be as romantic as “ Liberty, Equality, Fraternity” but it’s enough for more and more people.

Occupy protests are a moral and legitimate way to express outrage and demand redress of grievances. They may accomplish some of what they say they want in two ways: One, by standing up to increased government violence against them, Occupy victims will gain sympathy and support the same way the civil rights marchers did fifty years ago. The more Wall Street and their whores in Congress and the White House engage in rage, the worse government will look—especially as the economic crisis deepens. The second way is through traditional organizing and countering the 360-degree corporate media blitz engineered by paid class warriors.

For instance, Occupy operatives could get government sponsored ID’s for poor and minority voters in the GOP-controlled states that have already begun fixing the 2012 elections by enacting repressive voting laws intended to keep Democratically inclined people from voting. If Republicans truly believe, as they say they do, that the quickest way to suppress something is to tax or regulate it, why have they chosen to tax, regulate and suppress voting by the poor or Democratically inclined?

Government and society always feature competition between public and private interests. Republicans claim that private interests have created much of the wealth that Americans have enjoyed, but the job of government is not to cater to private interests. Government is there to protect public interests. To the extent government—federal, state and local— is the unindicted co-conpirator and criminal accomplice for business interests, it’s corrupt. For a generation, the Republican party has waged class warfare against the public interest and the Democratic party has stood idly by and watched it happen—and begged for crumbs. Even when the American people elected a president on whom rested their successful hopes for a milestone achievement in race relations in these United States and the undoing of the Bush nightmare, Barack Obama and his party have shown themselves to be merely part of a rapidly expanding series of problems—and void of solutions.

It’s not just the class war waged by the GOP but the cowardly collapse of the Democrats that set the stage for Occupy. Occupy are the American people—the 99 percent—who are tired of being ripped off, ignored, abused and cheated. A WWII Japanese admiral once referred to our grandparents’ America as “a sleeping giant”. That giant is awakening again to find the fight against fascism at home needing the same defeat it once got abroad.

It’s time to man up and lend our strength to that giant effort.

THE SECOND BILL OF RIGHTS:
1. The right to a useful and remunerative job in the industries or shops or farms or mines of the nation;

2. The right to earn enough to provide adequate food and clothing and recreation;

3. The right of every farmer to raise and sell his products at a return which will give him and his family a decent living;

4. The right of every businessman, large and small, to trade in an atmosphere of freedom from unfair competition and domination by monopolies at home or abroad;

5. The right of every family to a decent home;

6. The right to adequate medical care and the opportunity to achieve and enjoy good health;

7. The right to adequate protection from the economic fears of old age, sickness, accident, and unemployment;

8. The right to a good education.

2 Comments For This Post

It’s hugely ironic that as Russia gets more liberal and allows protests that even a decade ago would have been unthinkable, Britain’s going in the other direction. Protests of all kinds are going to be banned during the period of the Olympics. Honestly, the UK gets more like old-school Russia every day.

The world events, leading to the Occupy Wall Street movement, made me want to defy the odds and made a run at a Congressional seat. I don’t think lasting change will come until big money is taken out of the political arena. So, I want to be a Member of Congress to spearhead that movement. The Occupy Congress movement. Campaign reform and Lobby reform are the only way to get things turned around.